Jalen Chatfield

Last Season

Two goals and 15 assists in 72 games, plus-15, at 20:08 a night.

The Finesse Game

There is none, and the club does not want any. A hundred and sixty-seven unblocked attempts from a median of 51 feet with seven per cent inside twenty, and two goals. Twenty-three goals in 335 career games.

He moves it and defends. Fifteen assists is the whole of the offensive contribution.

The Physical Game

Six foot one, 209, and he plays a genuinely hard game — closes gaps aggressively, finishes checks, and is unpleasant in front of his own net. Eighteen penalty minutes in 72 games of that work is excellent discipline.

The Intangibles

Fifty-two per cent of the expected goals, 70th percentile, and 57.9 per cent of the shot attempts, 96th — and note the gap between those two. He controls the puck at an elite rate and the chances that result are only modestly in his favour, which is the signature of a defensive defenceman on a possession team: lots of puck, not much danger created with it.

The goals went 56-55 across 1,251 minutes, which on this club is a poor return and mostly belongs to the goaltending.

He is 30, undrafted, and has made 335 NHL games out of being reliable and hard. On a blue line that lost Slavin for half a season, he held it together.